I express my gratitude to the South Asia Foundation (SAF), New Delhi, for financial support to carryout academic activities at the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Institute for South Asia Regional Cooperation (UMISARC) and the Centre for South Asian Studies, Pondicherry University. I also express my gratitude to Prof.Gurmeet Singh, Vice Chancellor, Pondicherry University, for his constant encouragement and support to carryout academic activities at the institute and the centre. I also take this opportunity to thank all the authors sincerely for contributing their valuable chapters to this volume. It would be impossible to produce a volume of this nature without editorial and administra- tive support, and so I thank all, particularly Prof. P.V. Rao, Dr. S.I. Humayun, Dr. R. Srinivasan and Ms. Udita Banerjee for supporting me in this regard.
Adluri Subramanyam Raju